The steppes of central Eurasia have been the source of
countless nations and tribes, from the last retreat of the glaciers some
50,000 years ago, to nearly modern times (1845 CE, see the Buqei
Horde). This page attempts to examine a few of the better known tribes
to emerge from the region. It is hopelessly fragmentary and incomplete
of course, but what is set down will be of interest anyway, I hope. This
file can be considered a companion to my western nomad file - the
Teutons - each can be studied with a view toward analyzing the different
sorts of pre-literate nomads (barbarians, in popular parlance) to have
wandered Eurasia. Additionally, some of the major regions of Siberia are
noted. Siberia, the largest block of land on the planet that is not a continent
of itself, does not lend itself well to an archive such as this, since
most of the many peoples who inhabit it were and remain pretechnical semi-nomads,
with little in the way of formal Kings and Rulers. Nevertheless, some commentary
on this vast realm should be of use. As a final note, it may be of interest
to recall that the three best-known words in English of Siberian extraction
are "horde" (urdu), "mammoth" (mamunt - the animal, and by
extension the adjective), and "shaman".

The AMAZONS
(SAUROMATAE) The Amazons have been an enduring Hellenic
legend for better than 2800 years. They were said to be a tribe of woman
warriors inhabiting the steppe region around the Sea of Azov (other variants
of the tale speak of the upper Danube, or the Caucasus, as their homeland).
Sourced out of a culture noted for the extreme lengths to which it repressed
its women - treating them as little more than domesticated animals - the
tale of the Amazonoi is fairly clearly an elaborate version of the "upside-down"
story; a tall tale relating a circumstance in which every normal mode of
society is turned on it's head. According to the myth they met a Scythian
tribe, the Gargarii, once a year to mate and kept
only female children, selling or giving the boys to neighboring tribes,
or in some cases mutilating them and retaining them as slaves. The Amazons
were supposedly ruled by two queens, one for internal matters and one for
war. A number of complex tales grew up around the idea, eventually having
them invade Asia Minor, found the city of Ephesus, retreat back into the
north, and at other times interact with every Hellenic warrior-hero from
Herakles through Theseus to Alexander. Why, then, do I bother including
them in this archive? Because there may be a germ of truth to the story.
I don't believe in the existence of an all-female tribe of warriors, but
recent archeological evidence in the region has supported the idea of at
least some steppe-dwelling females achieving status as warriors. Then too,
the Central Asian Massagetae, ruled at an early
date by the warrior-queen Tomyris lends some credence to the idea. Herodotus
tells us that the Scythians knew of the Amazons, refering to them as Oiorpata
("man-slayers"), and while he is as often called the "Father of Lies" as
he is the "Father of History", he apparently lived among the Scythians
for a time, and may very well collected first-hand data about what that
people believed concerning their part of the world. So, here is a listing
of Amazonian queens, with a bit of commentary as well. Take it with whatever
degree of skepticism you feel is necessary.

Harmonia

A legendary ancestor-queen ascribed to the Amazons
by the Romans.

Otere

Lyssippe

According to Greek sources, Lyssipe built the city
of Themiscyra by Thermodon (the Sea of Azov) and introduced the worship
of "Artemis" (perhaps the Anatolian mother-goddess Kybyle ?).

Valaska

Dlasta

Melanippe

Ephasia Hippo

Ephasia was the mythological founder of the city
of Ephesus in Asia Minor.

In myth, Hippolyta's belt was stolen by Herakles,
sparking a Graeco-Amazonian war.

Antiope............................................fl. c. 1280

According to Herodotus, Antiope abdicated and fled
with the Athenian king Theseus, leading to an invasion of Greece by the
Amazons and their Scythian allies. There is some (but not much) archeological
evidence to support the idea of an invasion of Attica from the north during
this period - this may be connected to the roughly contemporaneous invasions
of the "People of the Sea" at about
this time).

Molpadia ("Death Song")............................fl. c. 1280

Clete

Penthesilea........................................fl. c. mid 1200's

Penthesilea led the Amazons in support of her ally,
Priam of Troy, and was killed by the Achaean hero Achilles.

Marpesia was said to have led an invasion of Syria
and Anatolia; this may be connected to the roughly contemporaneous Cimmerian
invasions of the Near East.

Orithia..............................................late 800's

??

Thalestris.........................................fl. c. 330

Popular legend of the period stated that Alexander
the Great was visited by the Amazon queen Thalestris during his Persian
campaign. She stayed with him 13 days and nights in the hopes that the
great warrior would father a daughter on her. Reports are conflicting -
one of Alexander's generals, Lysimachus, laughed whenever he heard the
story told, and other writers dismissed it as "complete fiction".

The later "history" of the Amazons is unknown. According
to tradition, they intermarried with a Scythian tribe to form a new egalitarian
society, the Sauromatae. From "Sauromatae" we get the name of the second
great Iranic nation (after the Scythians) to rule the steppe - the Sarmatians.

The AVARS
A Central Asian people living near the frontier of Iran, since they brought
with them several Irani loan words that have crept into general European
usage (cf. "Ban" as a Balkan title for military governor). There is still
an ethno-linguistic group called Avar
within the Caucasus who may be related to them. They penetrated the Balkans
in the wake of the Huns and established a Dark Ages empire within the western
and central Balkans. Always challanged by Franks to the West as well as
their own Slavonic subjects, their state lost cohesion in the latter 8th
century, and was largely absorbed by Charlemagne at the beginning of the
9th.

Name unknown.......................................fl.
early 790's opposed by...

Yugurus............................................fl. early 790's
and also...

Fourth Dynasty ? (795-c. 899)

Kajd Tudun.........................................795-803

Zodan..............................................803-805

Subject to the Carolingian Empire from 805

Theodore......................................805-814

Abraham.......................................fl.
810's

Isaac ? Tudun.................................fl.
c. 826

Name unknown..................................fl.
844

Territories not absorbed by the Carolingians from
the northwest and west were seized by Thracian Bulgaria in the southeast
and Greater Moravia in the north. By the end of the century, ealy South
Slavic states were emerging in the south, central and southwestern regions.

The BARSILS A Turkic tribal union, who settled in what is now the Volga delta region around the end of the sixth century CE.

To the Western Gök Turkiut......................c. 600-630

Tunashparaerkin....................................fl. 630's

To the Khazars..................................c. 700-c. 900

The Barsils appear to have
been an integral part of the Khazar tribal federation, and the wife of
the Khazar khagan around the year 700 was a Barsil princess.

Within Volgan Bulgaria therafter...

The BARTANGS
An Iranian-speaking people, possibly a remnant of the Scythians or Sarmatians,
inhabiting the Pamir region of Turkestan.

To the Mongols...................................1218-1226

To the Chagataiid Mongols........................1226-1370

To the Timurids..................................1370-1506

To Bokhara.......................................1506-1626

To the Dzungarian Kalmucks.......................1626-1758

To China.........................................1758-1876

To Russia........................................1876-1917

Within Kyrgyzstan................................1917-1919

To the Soviet Union (largely within Kyrgyzstan)..1919-1991

Largely within Kyrgyzstan........................1991-

BASHKIR (Bashkorts)
A Turkic people, possibly descended from the Bulgar horde of Bayan (the
common Turkic word "Bashkir" becomes "Bilkir" or "Bilgir" translated into
the Oghuric sub-branch, of which proto-Bulgarian is a part). They may alternatively
have been of Finno-Ugrian origin. They live today between the Volga and
the Urals, and beyond the Urals to some extent. Mediaeval travelers report
them as practicing a phallocentric cult; but today the majority are Sunni
Muslims - a significant minority are Eastern Orthodox Christians.

The BULGARS
The origins of the Bulgarian people are obscure. They emerge at the end
of the 5th century as one of many people which had been associated with
the Huns. When Attila's empire fragmented at his death in 453, the component
elements which he ruled, both Hunnic and non-Hunnic, all slipped free and
began jostling one another, migrating across the Balkans and the Ukraine,
by times controlling or being controlled by others. Within this confused
welter of peoples, a sept or clan of what were the ancestors of the Bulgars,
the Onogundar, established themselves beside the upper Volga. From that
base, they absorbed a number of other tribes and groups, including remnants
of the Huns (the Altyn Oba, the Kutrigur, and the Utrigur), among others.
Falling first under Avar influence, and later to the Khazars, the early
Bulgars migrated further up the Volga, and there sundered into five seperate
hordes , each of which followed an independent destiny.

The ONOGUNDAR Called
VNGTR in Khazar sources.

DULO

Vulgar (Bulgaros)...........................530's-540 with...

Drogo.......................................530's-540's

?

Tributary to the Avars.....................c.
565-600

Hudbaad (Tubdjaq)......................580's-c.
605

Organa (Bu-Yurgan).........................c. 605-610's

Alburi......................................610's-c. 618

Kubrat (Khagan, all Bulgars, from c. 630)..c.
618-660

Partitioned between Kubrats five sons...

Horde of Bayan: remained in Azov
region, within Khazar hegemony from c. 665.

Horde of Kuber (the Kutrigurs): migrated
to Pannonia, to Avars until 805, then merged with
Horde of Asparukh.

Horde of Altsek (640’s-690’s): migrated
to Italy, subject
to Byzantines, absorbed by Lombards during the 700's.

It should be noted that the above account has garnered criticism in recent
years. Since 1991, a number of Bulgarian historians have put forward the
notion that the earliest Bulgars were not proto-Turkics, and still less
a remnant of the Huns themselves alongside the Kutrigurs and Utrigurs,
but rather an Iranic people (similar to the Avars and Sarmatian Alans),
migrating north out of the Caucasus. They suggest an entirely different
list of early khans, based on old traditional sources, one in which Kubrat
appears, but at a slightly earlier timeframe.

DULO

Avitohol......................................129-429sic...

Irnik.........................................429-579sic...

ERMI

Gostun........................................579-581

DULO

Kubrat........................................581-641

Partitioned between Kubrats five sons, as indicated
above...

The BUQEI HORDE The
last nomad nation in Central Asia, located in Western Khazakhstan, between
the Volga and Ural Rivers; it consisted of roughly 5,000 families of Kazakhs
of the Younger Kazakh Zhuz (clans of Adai, Jappas, Baibakty, Tana, Bersh,
Cherkesh, Maskar, Isyk, Isen-temir, Alacha, Kyzyl-kurt, Taz, Tama, Kerderi,
Tabyn and Kite). Always under Russian hegemony, it was first a Sultanate,
becoming a Khanate in 1812.

The BUQEI HORDE

Buqei........................................1801-1815

Shighai......................................1815-1823

Jangher......................................1823-1836
d. 1845

Isatai Tamanov (Leader of a peasant rebellion)....1836-1837

Jangher (restored)...........................1837-1845

Provisional Council (Russian
officials)......1845-1876

To Russia (Astrakhan district) directly thereafter...

BURTAS (Udmurts
or
Votyak) A nomadic Finno-Ugric tribe inhabiting the region
between the Don and the Volga rivers, especially centered around Izhevsk,
northeast of Kazan. Some of their tribes may have contributed to the Magyar
confederacy. Some scholars have identified them as Alan in origin (Burt-As)
and with the Mishars and Mokshi of Russian historiography.

To the Bulgars...................................c.600-650
CE

To the Khazars.....................................650-1000

To the Pechenegs..................................1000-1030

To the Cumans.....................................1030-1238

To the Mongols and the Golden Horde...............1238-1427

To Kazan..........................................1427-1552

To Muscovy, and Russia thereafter...

Udmurt Auton. Soviet Republic (within USSR)..1934-1991

Republic of Udmurtia (within Russian Fed.)...1993-

The BURYATS
A Mongol people originating in northern Mongolia. They have since spread
and form significant minorities in areas of Russia, Mongolia, China, and
Kazakhstan.

Legendary ancestor-khans

Buryat Khan

Bukhe Beligte Gesser

Enkhe Bulat Ba'atur

Ashir Bogdo

Tului Mergen

Nishan

To the Mongols.................................c.
1200-1411

To the Kalmucks...................................1411-1600's

Yandash (Khan of the Irkutu Buryats)...............fl.
1660's

??

To Russia from 1670's

Rinchen Dorzhin (Khan of the Khori Buryats)...fl.
1800's

Today the Buryats have an autonymous Republic, Buryatia,
within the Russian Federation on the southern shore of Lake Baikal.

CHIONITES (RED HUNS)
From the Middle Persian word xiyon, 'Hun', a Hunnic tribe that began
encroaching upon the frontiers of Iran and the the Kushan state circa 320
A.D. A distinct people from the Hephtalites, the Chionites were also called
'Red' Huns. Shortly after 340 (?) A.D., the enigmatic leader Kidara pushed
the Kushans out of northern Pakistan and gave his name to this short-lived
dynasty. At the end of the 4th century, a new wave of Hunnic tribes (Alchoni)
invaded Bactria, pushing the Kidarites into Gandhara. The Kidarites in
northern India continued to mint debased gold and copper coins until the
end of the 5th century. Dates and attributions below are questionable.
Kidarite principalities may also have existed at Kota Kula, in Kashmir
and Taxila; the names of the monarchs in those areas are unknown.

Kidarite dynasty in Bactria

Kidara I...........................................fl. c. 320 CE

Kungas....................................................330's ?

Varhran I..........................................fl. c. 340

Grumbat............................................c. 358-c. 380

Kidara (II ?)......................................fl. c. 360

Brahmi Buddhatala..................................fl. c. 370

unknown name.......................................fl.
c. 390

Varhran (II).......................................fl. c. 425

Goboziko...........................................fl. c. 450

Salanavira............................................mid 400's

Vinayaditya..........................................late 400's

The CIMMERIANS
A proto-Iranian group which held the steppes of the Ukraine and southern
Russia for quite a long while. They are best known today for their large
and treasure-heavy burial mounds, called Kurgans. They, or rather their
name, have also found a place in modern fantasy literature; Robert E. Howard
adopted the name as the home tribe of his fictional hero, Conan the Barbarian.
In the 8th century BCE, they came under increasing pressure from the Scythians,
and in response migrated around the Black Sea to lay waste to large portions
of Thrace and Anatolia. They were eventually disrupted by Lydia, but pockets
of their language and culture persisted until the 5th century BCE. They
are poorly documented and, in fact, the selection of names below has been
Hellenized to a considerable degree.

Gomer (eponymous ancestor-king).................fl.
c. 2300 BCE

??

(Priam I of Troy)

(Helenos I)

Genger..........................................fl. c. 1150

In Classical and subsequent Mediaeval genealogies,
Genger was regarded as a son of the Trojan Prince Helenos (himself a son
of Priam), by Andromache, widow of Hector. This may regarded with tolerance
as a species of creative genealogy invented by early historiographers with
an interest in tracing all known tribes and nations back to a familiarly
Aegean source.

Franco

Esdron

Gelio

Basabiliano

Plaserion I

Plesron

Eliacor

Gaberiano

Plaserion II

Antenor.........................................fl. c. 800

Following "Antenor", the Cimmerians began migrating
out of their ancient Ukrainian homeland, around the Black Sea, and into
Anatolia...

Priam II

Helenos II

Plesron II

Basabiliano II

Alexander

Priam III

Teushapa (Teuspa)............................fl. 680's-670's

Getmalor........................................fl. c. 677

Lygdamis (Tugdamme in Assyrian records)........fl.
mid 600's

Sandakhshatra.................................fl. late 600's

Almadion

Diluglion

Note another example of invented genealogies, connecting
the Cimmerians with the Sicambrian Franks of the Lower Rhine. In this version,
the last Cimmerian rulers appear thusly:

Almadion

Dilulgis

Helenos III

Plaserius III

Diluglion

Marcomer I

Priam IV

Helenos IV......................................fl. c. 490

Antenor II (King of the Cimmerians of Scythia)......d.
443 BCE

It must needs be emphasized that by the 5th century
BCE, the Ukraine was entirely in the hands of the Scythians,
a different people from the Cimmerians, whom they replaced in this region
in the 9th century BCE. Nevertheless, see the Sicambri
(Franks) thereafter...

The CUMANS
In Turkic called Kipchaks, by the Russians called Polovetses, the Cumans
were a vast tribal confederation that at times stretched from the Aral
Sea, across the Volgan and Ukrainian steppes, to as far west as Hungary.
Normally they were organized by septs and tribes, with little in the way
of overall cohesion. A warlike people, they fought incessantly against
Russian Princes, but just as often involved themselves with various Russians
against others. Destroyed by the Mongols in the 13th century, western refugees
migrated into Hungary and assimilated with that culture. Their lasting
influence is diffuse and subtle, but far-reaching: Khazakhs, Uzbeks, and
the Crimean Tatars are largely descended from Eastern Cumans. Qutb ad-Din
Aibeg, founder of the Delhi sultanate, was
a Cuman; redeemed from slavery by Afghan shakh Mahmud Ghuri, he became
his governor in Delhi and proclaimed independence after the death of his
patron. Egyptian Mamluks were also Cuman
to a large degree, engaged in the Sultan's Guard, later to rebel and seize
Egypt.

A general survey of the core territory
controlled by the Cumans (eastern Ukraine, southern Russia) and
northern Khazakhstan) before they occupied it.

KIMAK TURKS An
account of the Cumans must commence with the Kimak. The Kimak were an important,
if obscure, tribal confederacy during the Dark Ages. They inhabited the
steppe region roughly corresponding to the area of Russia north of Kazakhstan,
and were involved in the fur trade with tribes and nations to the south.
To escape the cold the Kimak built underground villages, consisting of
networks of trenches covered by layers of greased hides. They are famous
for their cultic centers, which featured large wooden idols surrounded
by stone monoliths.

The 7 above-named chieftains are mentioned in Kimak
epics but may just have been mythical, eponymous ancestors of the various
Kimak tribes.

Towards the end of the 900s, large numbers of Kimak
Turks descended on the Pontic region around the Black Sea, establishing,
as the Cumans (Kipchak), a confederacy stretching from the Danube basin
almost to China, and destroyed only by Genghis Khan. The Kimak who remained
in their ancestral homeland passed under the control of various factions:

To the Kirghiz...........................early
900's-1100's

To the Qara-Khitai............................1100's-1208

To the Mongols from 1208

At this point the Kimak disappear as a seperate people.

KIPCHAK TURKS Meanwhile,
the Kipchak (Cumans) who had broken off from the Kimak and invaded the
Pontic steppes divided into many tribes and principalities, as often fighting
among themselves as with Russian or Pecheneg enemies. Among their more
successful overlords were:

Remnants to Crimean Girai khanate thereafter... Kipchak-speaking
populations today include the Crimean and Volga Tatars, the Nogai, the
Karakalpaks, the Uzbeks, and the Kazakhs.

The HEPHTALITES
A people of Central Asia, who migrated into the Oxus watershed, and from
thence south and southeastward, into what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan,
and portions of northern India. Ethnically, they elude precise classification;
probably a blend of various tribes to one extent or another, they nevertheless
retain a link to the complex group of peoples known in China as the Hsiung-Nu
and in the west as Huns: to the Chinese they were the
Hua, and to their Hindu opponents they were the Hunas.

From about 440 to 490 a large but ephemeral
Empire was established, stretching from Samarkand and Merv to Qandahar
and Kabul. They then expanded eastward and established links to China,
and descended upon India, wreaking great carnage.

?

Akshuwar........................................c. 420-mid 430's

Khingila I......................................c. 430-490

Akhshunwar (in Transoxiana)........................fl.
484

Ye-dai-yi-li-tuo (in Xinjiang)..............fl.
c. 507-531

Toramana I (in India)..............................
? -502

Mihirakula (in India)..............................502-530

Napki Malka (in Gandhara)................fl.
early-mid 500's

Toramana II.....................................c. 530-570

Lakhana (in India).............................fl.
mid 6th cent.

Khingila II (in India)........................fl.
late 6th cent.

The Hephtalites were destroyed in the 560's by a
combination of Persian (Sassanid) and proto-Turkic forces.

Narana (Narendra) (probably over remnants only).c.
570-600

HSIEN-PI (Xianbi)
A group of Tungusic and proto-Mongolic people who supplanted the Hsiung-Nu
as masters of the steppe north of the Great wall in the 100's CE. They
were only briefly unified, under Dardjegwe in the late 100's.

To the Hsiung-Nu to mid 100's

Dardjegwe (Tanshihuai)..........................c. 170-180

In the 200s Hsien-pi tribes pushed southwards and
established petty kingdoms in China and Manchuria. See Liao-Xi,
early
Manchuria, Wuhuan, and Yu-Wen
for Hsien-Pi kingdoms.

The HSIUNG-NU
The Hsiung-nu were a people of vaguely Turkic stock, nomadic pastoralists
living north of China. They often raided China of the Han dynasty, providing
a major security threat for centuries. Their presence induced, in fact,
the Chinese to begin construction of the Great Wall.

Xiuybudan...........................................18-19 and then
by...

Udatqu..............................................21-46

Panu (in Northern Hsiung-nu from 48)................46-83

In 48, the Hsiung-Nu fragmented into Northern and
Southern nations.

NORTHERN HSIUNG-NU (sometimes called "Western")

Sanmolo Otzi........................................83-84

Ulugh...............................................84-89

name not known......................................89-91

El'tekin............................................91-93

Panghu..............................................93-118

The Northern Hsiung-Nu removed to modern Khazakhstan,
where the Huyang endured until the middle of the 2nd century CE: driven
out of their lands by Xian-Bi, they migrated further
west, across the Ukraine and into Europe, which they bedeviled under the
name of the Huns. Another branch of the Northern Group
established the Kingdom of Yuehban, located between the Aral Sea and Lake
Balkash, which survived until the 6th century CE before succumbing to Turkic
invasions. Also, a group of peoples called "Hephtalites"
appeared in Iran and Northern India during the 5th and 6th centuries who
seem to be the same stock. Meanwhile, the Southern Hsiung-Nu accepted a
nominal Chinese suzereinty, and continued in place, by times enlisting
in the Chinese military, and at other times depredating eastern Asia.

There is little information about rulers of the Hsiung-nu
after 181. But Hsiung-Nu are still mentioned for some centuries during
"The Three Kingdoms era" (220-316) and later, Hsiung-Nu commanders were
responsible for setting up several short-lived Kingdoms in China during
the troublous 4th century.

The HUNS The
western Huns controlled at their greatest extent the Balkans, much of central
Europe, and the western Russian steppes of the Ukraine and Belarus. This
list minimizes the fact that the Huns were seldom if ever completely unified,
but as there is virtually no documentation on splinter groups, this survey
of major Hunnic rulers will have to suffice. See also the Hsiung-Nu
for the probable antecedents of this people, and the Chionites
and Hephtalites for related Hordes.

Kama Tarkhan Kama was a legendary ancestor-King,
mentioned in Eastern Hunnic sources, particularly among those who formed
the Altyn Oba Horde (see below). There is no-one among theHsiung-Nuwhose name sounds much like "Kama Tarkhan", but if he existed, he might
have been the otherwise unnamed chief who took the Northern Hsiung-Nu westward,
into the Ukrainian steppes.

The Huns reached the summit of their power under
Attila, controlling almost all of the Balkans, Austria, northern Italy,
Slovakia, and much of the Ukraine. Upon his death (of natural causes) early
in 453, the Huns fragmented into competing factions, each headed by one
of his numerous sons. Upon the defeat of the last of these (Dengizich)
in Thrace, in 469, the Western Huns lost all tribal cohesion, and survivors
were absorbed into the Ostrogoth or Bulgar (Eastern Hun) nations.

Subsequent Hunnic Hordes are...

The Altyn Oba Horde Referred
to in some sources but not conclusively attested to. Located north of the
Black Sea, in the Ukraine. Tingiz and Belkermak were sons of Attila.

Dengizich (Tingiz) (see also Kutrigur)..........c.
453-469 with...

Hernach (Ernak, Belkermak)......................c. 453-c. 481

Djurash Masgut...............................c. 481/98-c. 505

Tatra..............................................fl. early 500's

Boyan Chelbir...................................... ? -c. 590

To Onogundars thereafter...

The KUTRIGURS West
of the Don River.

Dengizik (Tingiz) (see also Altyn Oba).....c.
453-469

Labertam....................................470's-488

Kutrigur....................................490's-510's

?

Khinialon...................................540's-551

Sinnion.......................................551-late 550's

Zabergan...............................late 550's-c. 582

Gostun........................................582-584

To the Onogundars

The UTRIGURSEast
of the Don River.

Ernak (son of Attila, see also above).........453-480's

Uturgur.....................................490's-510's

?

Sandlikh....................................540's-560's

To the Onogundars

Other post-Attila Hunnic hordes of note were the
Huns of Crimea (seeKeremi Huns) and those
of the North Caucasus (seeKavkhazia).
The Khazars are believed to have spoken a Hunnish language.

For any visiting the Huns from elsewhere in this
archive, here is an express back to where you were before...

ISSEDONES
An ancient people of Central Asia at the end of the trade route leading
north-east from Scythia. They were described by Herodotus, Pausanias and
Ptolemy. Like the Massagetae (with whom they often warred) the Issedones
were similar to the Scythians yet Herodotus distinguishes between them.
They probably inhabited the Tarym basin. Among their more unique customs
was the holding of wives in common, ritual parricide and cannibalism. Some
of these customs survived until relatively recently in parts of Tibet and
it is possible that the Issedones were proto-Tibetan in origin.
The JUAN-JUAN
A Central Asian Horde inhabiting what is now Mongolia and parts of Xinjiang.
Their ethnic affinities are obscure; they have been identified by various
authorities as connected to Mongols, Turks, Huns, or even Avars. Knowledge
about them is fragmentary; the following list is based on Chinese records,
and therefore most of the entries cannot pretend to represent the rulers
names with much degree of accuracy (the reasonably accurate ones are those
within 402-552).

Yùjiǔlǘ Mùgǔlǘ..................................... ? -330

Yùjiǔlǘ Chēlùhuì

Yùjiǔlǘ Tǔnúgūi

Yùjiǔlǘ Bátí

Yùjiǔlǘ Dìsùyuán

Yùjiǔlǘ Pǐhóubá

Yùjiǔlǘ Màngētí

Yùjiǔlǘ Héduōhàn................................... ? -402

Qiudoufa Khan......................................402-410

Aikugai Khan.......................................410-414

Bukha Yesunggei Khan...............................414-429

Chilian Khan.......................................429-444

Chu Khan...........................................444-350

Shouluobuzhen Khan.................................450-485

Fumingdun Khan.....................................485-492

Houqifudaikezhe Khan...............................492-506

Toghon Khan........................................506-508

Douluofubadoufa Khan...............................508-520

Chiliantoubingdoufa Khan...........................520-552 with...

Mi'oukeshegou Khan.................................521-524

Yùjiǔlǘ Tiěfá......................................552-553

Yùjiǔlǘ Dēngzhù........................................553

Yùjiǔlǘ Kāngtí.........................................553

Yùjiǔlǘ Ānluóchén..................................553-554

Yùjiǔlǘ Dèng Shūzǐ.....................................555

Disrupted by Turkic Hordes (Eastern Gok)

The KALMUCK (Kalmyk, Oirat)
A West Mongolian people living mainly in central Asia (as opposed to Eastern
Mongols - Mongol and Buryat). The were a nomadic people who migrated in
large numbers into western Kazakhstan in the 17th century, and formed an
Empire which encompassed much of the central Asian plateau at one time.
Suppressed during World War II for supposed "anti-Soviet activity", they
were rehabiltated in 1957 and reinstated as a republic (on the edge of
Kazakhstan, northwest of the Caspian Sea) within the Soviet state.

Batur............................................1626-1653

Senge............................................1653-1671

Galdan Boshoktu..................................1671-1697 with...

Tsevan Rabdan....................................1689-1727

Galdan...........................................1727-1745

Tsevan Dorji.....................................1745-1750

Lama Dorji.......................................1750-1753

Dawa Achi........................................1753-1755

Amursana.........................................1755-1757

Portions to China and/or the Kazakh Hordes...18th
and 19th centuries

To Russia piecemeal.........................1746/1824-1917

Local conditions only............................1917-1922

To the Soviet Union..............................1922-1991

Within the Russian Federation, as a republic.....1991-

For representative clients and territories of the
Oirat rulers, seeBartang, Kazakhstan,
Roshani,
andXinjiang. See also theTorghutsfor
a particular group of Oirat who settled in Russia for a time before needing
to flee back to their ancient homeland in Xinjiang.The KAZAKH HORDE Occupying the wide expanse
of steppe north of Central Asia.

Within early Shaybanid hegemony under Abu'l Khayr
in northern Khwarazm, to 1468.

Kaip was the last Khan of all the Khazakhs. His descendents
partitioned the Horde into Elder (south and east), Intermediate (central
and northern), and Younger (western) districts, called respectively the
Uli Zhuz, Orta Zhuz, and the Kishi Zhuz. These divisions had existed before,
from the 16th century, in fact - but from 1718 they were permanent.

ULI ZHUZ

Aq Nazar ibn Kasim (All the Khazakhs 1538-80).....1537-1575

Shigai ibn Djadik (All the Khazakhs 1580-82)......1575-1582

Tawekel ibn Haq Nazar (All the Khazakhs 1586-98)..1582-1598

Yesim I the Tall (All the Khazakhs 1598-1628).....1598-1628
opposed by...

KHAKASS A Turkic-speaking people related
to the Kyrgyz (they may be descendents of Kyrgyz who remained behind when
the bulk of that nation began migrating southwest) and living in the middle
reaches of the Yenisei river in Siberia. The Khakass have inhabited that
region since time immemorial. Historically they were nomadic herders but
in the last two centuries they were Christianized and forced to settle
by the Russian government. They now form a constituent republic of the
Russian Federation (albeit a Republic with a Russian ethnic majority);
there are aproximately 550,000 Khakass in the world today. The capital
of Khakassia is the city of Abakan.

To the Gök Turks...................................560-651

To China...........................................651-683

To the Gök Turks...................................683-744

To the Uighurs.....................................744-840

To the Kyrgyz......................................840-c.
1150

To the Qara Khitai.............................c.
1150-1218

To the Mongols, and the Horde of Chagatai.........1218-1368

Local tribes vying for power......................1368-1620's

To Russia..................................late
1620's-1917

To anti-Communist forces..........................1917-1919

To Soviet Union...................................1919-1991

To Russia (Republic of Khakassia).................1991-

The KHAZARS The
Khazars were a Turkic-speaking nation of semi-nomadic steppe dwellers living
to the northwest of the Caspian Sea, near the portage between the Volga
and Don Rivers. Proselytized by both Christian and Muslim missionaries,
they took the remarkable step of converting to Judaism as a way of side-stepping
potential domination by either the Byzantine Empire or the Caliphate. Thereafter,
they contained Muslim expansion beyond the Caucasus for several hundred
years. Their Kingdom disintegrated in the 10th century, and they were dispersed
as a people after the 13th. century. I have information on both the Khagans
and also the military commanders, the Beks, and so include both.

Early Khazar rulers...

Khozarig (Eponymous folk-ancestor)

To the Huns....................................c. 430-c. 480

Karadach.....................................fl. 450's

??

To the Gök Turks................................570's-630

The
following individuals were Yabghus or princes of the area that
eventually became Khazaria, under Gök-Turk overlordship. All are
known to have commanded Khazar troops, but should not be regarded as
rulers of all the Khazars as such; the indepence of the Khanate of
Khazaria did not emerge until the fragmentation of the Gök empire in the 630's/640's.

Qara Churin..................................fl. late 500's and...

Turk Hanthos.................................fl. late 500's and...

Buri-Khan....................................fl. late 500's

Ziebel (Same as Tun Yabgu Khan in Sogdiana)..618-630

Böri Shad (ishad or viceroy of the Khazars)..... 620's and...

Bagha Shad.......................................620's and...

Yazir Bulash.....................................620's and...

Khazar Khagans (Ashina dynasty) The
Khagans were the supreme chiefs of the people, holding a position of much
influence and spiritual authority, but not much actual day-to-day command.

Chorpan Tarkhan...................................mid 600's

Irbis ? ..........................................fl. 650

In this period of time (650's-680's), one will sometimes
see references to aKhalga, fl. mid 660's,
and aKaban, fl. late 660's.
Researchers should be aware that these names are derived from a single
document, the Djagfar tarikhy, and that this document has been severely
attacked by a great many scholars as being a mixture of factual data and
outright fabrications. The Djagfar tarikhy purports to be a compiliation
of early Bulgar historical information, assembled (or at least written
in it's present form) in the late 17th century. It has been used by Volgan
Tatars to provide documentation for extending their antecedents in their
region back in time by many centuries. It's critics claim it to be a forgery
created by or at the behest of the Soviet Secret Police (then the NKVD)
in the 1930's, for the purpose of creating divisiveness and factionalism
within the ethnic Tatars of that era. It is known that the Soviet government
did create spurious historical documents on several occasions. The historicity
of people that it refers to is questionable therefore, so until such time
as there may come to light additional documentation, Khalga and Kaban should
be regarded warily at best.

Busir (Ibuzir Glavan)...........................c.690-715

Busir Glavan took in the exiled Byzantine Emperor
Justinian II and gave him his own sister (baptismal name Theodora). He
later tried to kill Justinian to placate Tiberius III (to be fair, attempting
to kill Justinian II was a fairly common passtime of the period), causing
Justinian's flight to Bulgaria and his ultimate restoration to the throne.

Barjik.................................fl. late 720's-731

Barjik is famous for having annihilated an Arab army
outside Ardebil (NW Iran) in 730, taking thousands of prisoners and plundering
the region until his defeat and death at Mosul a year later. The victory
at Ardebil was such a blow to the Arab psyche that for years it was referred
to as "the Ardebil catastrophe."

Bihar..........................................fl. c. 732

Bihar is the name given in some sources to the Khazar
Khagan whose daughter Tzitzak married the future Byzantine Emperor Constantine
V. Their son was Leo IV, called "Leo The Khazar".

Prisbit (fem.)(Regent
?).......................fl. late 730's

To the Caliphate..................................737-c.
740

Baghatur.......................................fl. c. 760

Xan-Tuvan Dyggvi...............................c. 825-830 d. ?

"Tarkhan".............................................840's

Arab sources speak of "Tarkhan, King of the Khazars"
during this period. Tarkhan can be both a proper name and a military rank,
and it is unclear whether the sources refer to a Khagan named Tarkhan or
are merely a confused reference to a general.

Zachariah..........................................c. 860's

??

Khazar Beks The
Beks were warlords, military commanders who exercised considerable day-to-day
authority, and were sometimes regarded by outsiders as the supreme lords
of the Khazar Nation. It is not entirely clear that the individuals listed
before 737 were or were not Bulanids, or were Beks - they may have been
simply warlords. Nevertheless, their activity parallels that of later Beks,
and so they are included.

Yazir Bulash

Chorpan Tarkhan...................................mid 600's

Alp Tarkhan.....................................early 700's

Tar'mach.......................................fl. c. 730

Hazer Tarkhan..................................... ? -737

To the Caliphate..................................737-c.
740

Hazer's army was annihilated at Itil in 737: The
Caliphate imposed Islam upon the Khazars. Nevertheless, the Caliphs could
not adequately garrison Khazaria, and within a few years the Khazars were
once again independent. The famous conversion to Judaism seems to have
occured about this time. The date of the actual conversion to Judaism is
a matter of some controversy. Traditionally it occurred around 740, though
some Arab sources point to a date closer to the end of the 700s/early 800's
and more recent scholars postulated that 861, the date of St. Cyril's visit
to Khazaria, was the year of the conversion to Judaism. The 2002 discovery
of a coin hoard in Sweden further complicates the issue, as some of the
coins bear dates from the early 800's and the legends "Ard al-Khazar" (Land
of the Khazars) and "Moses is the Prophet of God". Bulan Sabriel
was the Khazar ruler at the time of the conversion, but all the dates up
to Aaron I are based on a 740 conversion date.

Bulanid dynasty

Bulan Sabriel..................................fl. c. 740

Obadiah........................................c. 786-809

Hezekiah

Manasseh I

Chanukkah

Isaac

Zebulun

Manasseh II

Nisi

Aaron I........................................fl. c. 900

Menahem

Benjamin.......................................fl. c. 920

Aaron II...............................c. late 920's -940

Joseph........................................fl. 940-965

Joseph corresponded with Hisdai ibn Shaprut, a Jewish
vizier to Abd al-Rahman III, Caliph of Cordova. It is from this letter
that the preceding list is taken. It is not 100% clear that the Bulanids
were in fact not Khagans, though their power certainly appears to be that
of the Beks. Moreover, it is possible that the positions merged in the
900's, as Joseph makes no reference to a colleague, instead referring to
himself as "king of the Khazars."

In 969 Sviatoslav of Kiev sacked Itil, the capital
of the Khazar Khaganate. Khazar successor states appear to have survived
in the Caucasus and around the Black Sea. We know of two later Khazar rulers:

David (in Taman)...............................c.
986-988

Georgius Tzul (In Kerch)..........................
? -1016

Georgius Tzul was captured by a joint Rus-Byzantine
expedition and his state was destroyed. Shortly thereafter the Kipchaks
became masters of the Pontic steppe (seeCumans).
However, there continue to be tantalizing references in Muslim sources
of battles against "Khazars" in the Caucasus well into the late 1000's-
whether Khazar states continued to survive or their name was used generically
to describe Caucasian highlanders is unclear. The fate of the Jewish Khazars
is unclear. Jewish travellers of the 1100s continue to refer to them in
passing. Khazar Jews are known to have lived in Kiev and even to have emigrated
to Spain, Egypt, and Iraq. The majority may have gone to Hungary,
Poland and the Crimea, mingling with Jews in those areas and with later
waves of Jewish immigrants from the west. Genetic testing has disproven
that Ashkenazi Jews are primarily descended from the Khazars, but some
admixture is highly probable. Note also, the name "Khazaria" survived,
at least for a time, as the general label for the region of Crimea and
the lands beside the Sea of Azov utilized byGenoese
merchant-colonizersin the area.

MAGADAN and KAMCHATKAThe
extreme eastern end of Siberia, consisting of the Pacific coast and its
juncture with the Arctic Sea around the Chukchi Peninsula. The Kamchatka
Peninsula is the large leaf-shaped ridge of land springing off Chukchi
to the southwest.

Before European contact, the sole inhabitants of
this region were scattered bands of Chukchi Inuits alongside Evenk pastoralists
and Tungus nomads, with occasional Yakut or Manchu forays. It may be of
interest to note that this is the region traversed by proto-Asiatic nomads
on their way across the Bering Straits landbridge during the last Ice-Age;
the first settlers of the Western Hemisphere.

Southern and central regions to Mongolia.......c.
1210-c. 1400

Some to Manchus, otherwise only local tribes...c.
1375-c. 1650

Magadan annexed to Russia piecemeal............c.
1640-1650

Kamchatka annexed to Russia piecemeal..........c.
1697-1732

Alyk (leader of Koryak opposition to Russia)......1748-1750's

Chuckchi annexed to Russia piecemeal...........c.
1764-1800

(Note: this region was offered to the United States
along with Alaska in 1867, but was refused.)

To Russia...........................................to
1917

To Anti-Communist forces..........................1917-1920

To the Soviet Union...............................1920-1991

To Russia.........................................1991-

The MAGYARS
The original Hungarians, a tribal confederacy of seven related clans. The
Magyars are by-and-large a Finno-Ugrian people, related to a degree to
Finns, Karelians, and Estonians on the one hand, and Turkic peoples on
the other. The original confederation, consisting of the Magyari (Madjary),
Nyék (Nyak), Kari, Kasi, Taryán, Kurt-Djarmat, and Yenö
tribes, was augmented by three dissident Khazar clans, collectively called
the Kabars, and the seven plus three formed the "On Oghur" ("Ten Arrows")
Confederation; some think that "On Oghur" is the source behind the modern
term "Hungary".

Legendary ancestor-kings

Nimrodos

Magor...............................................c. 300's CE

Under Hunnic domination.....................late
300's-453

Under Ostrogothic domination.......................453-488

??

Under Khazar domination.....................late
700's-896

Etel Koz period, late 700's-870's
Rule by a council of tribal chieftains, few of whose names are recorded.

Ugyek

Lebedia period, 870's-896 Under
Lebedias, and in response to increasing Pecheneg pressure, the Hungarians
move to the Dneiper region, which they call Lebedia after their great chieftain.

Lebedias..............................mid to
late 800's with...

Almus and...

Huba and...

Töhötöm and...

Ond and...

Elod and...

Tash and then...

During this period the early Hungarians adopted a
dual-kingship system similar to that of their Khazar overlords. The two
kings were the kündü, or ritual king, and the gyula or war-leader.

Kurszan (as kündü)...........................late
800s-905 with...

Almus (see also above) and then...

Arpad.................................from early 890's-907

During the 890s the Khazars, in alliance with the
Oghuz, attacked the Pechenegs, who migrated westward across the Don River.
Arpad and Kurszan, tiring of fighting off constant Pecheneg
attack, led their people over the Carpathians into Pannonia. When Kurszan
was killed in a raid in 905, Arpad became sole monarch of the Hungarian
nation. The title of Gyula was reinstated by Arpad for the leader of
the Hungarian armies. The ruler of Transylvania also went under the title
Gyula (and some such princes adopted Gyula as a personal name as well).

The MASSAGETAI (Massa Getae)A
nomadic people inhabiting the Central Asian steppes east of the Caspian.
It is not exactly clear just who these people were - they resembled Scythians
to a degree, although Herodotus takes pains to differentiate between the
two, and some scholars have connected the name Massa Getai with the later
Goths - but this etymology is not widely accepted. The Persians made
several attempts to conquer the Massagetai with little success; indeed,
it was the Massagetai who killed the first and arguably greatest of the
Persian kings, Cyrus the Great. According to Herodotus, the Massagetai
were sun-worshippers who practiced ritual patricide and cannibalism.

Massa Getai ?

Skuka I ?

Tomyris (fem.).............................fl.
530's-late 500's BCE

As part of his effort to consolidate his regime's
possessions, Cyrus the Great of Persia attempted to subdue the Massagetai
territory. He met with initial success and captured Tomyris' son. After
her son committed suicide in Cyrus's captivity, Tomyris swore revenge and
finally succeeded in both killing Cyrus and defeating his army.

Skuka II........................................fl. c. 500

??

Perhaps merged with the Sakae and/or Sarmatians by
c. 100 BCE

MELANCHAENI (Black Cloaks)Almost
nothing is known about this group, who Herodotus describes as similar to,
but distinct from, the Scythians. The name he gives them means "Black Cloaks"
or "Black Robes", presumably due to their national costume. They were supposed
to have lived "north of the Royal Scythians (the Sakâ
Paradraya)", probably in the western part of the Volga river valley
about midway between the Caspian and the Kama junction. [Herodotus 4.20]

The MONGOLS
This famous people has existed within numerous different Hordes and Nations;
they are described on their own page, HERE.

OGHUZ (GHUZZ)
The Oghuz, also called Ghuzz or Ouzz, were a confederation of 24 Turkic
tribes inhabiting the region between the Caspian and the Aral Sea (northern
and western Khwarazm). They were successors to the Gök Turks, from
whom most of the tribes were descended (some may have been Uighur originally).
Though frequently subject to the Khazars or other steppe peoples, they
are nonetheless of critical importance to world history as being the forbears
of the Seljuq Turks. Their ruler, when they were united under one individual,
held the title Yabghu (prince); his foremost warlord and military leader
was called the Kudarkin.

Oghuz Khan

Component of the Gök Turkic Khaganate............c.550-650

Inal Awi.......................................c.
600

Duyli Kai

Erkin

Tuman

Kanly Awi

Mur Awi

Qara Khan ?

Bugara Khan ?

Kazi Tegin

Bazkhagan...............................fl. 670's-680's

To the Gök Turks...................................682-c.700

?

To the Khazars..................................c.
750-940

It is possible that the Pechenegs
were an Oghuz offshoot formed during this period. In the early 900s the
Oghuz established an independent state around the fortress of Enikert.

Sarjuq, an Oghuz officer (probably a mercenary) in
the Khazar army, had a falling out with the Khazar government and fled
to Khwarazm, where he managed to defeat the Yabghu and establish hegemony
over the Oghuz tribes. He converted to Islam c. 990 (though his sons had
Judeo-Arabic names, leading some to suggest that he had originally adopted
the court religion of Khazaria).

'Ali Khan........................................early 1000's

Arslan Isra'il ibn Sarjuq......................c. 1010-1029 with...

Doud ibn Sarjuq...

Arslan's son, Toghril Beg, took control of the Oghuz
horde and invaded Persia, establishing the Seljuq
dynasty.

Around 1000 Cuman incursions caused the Oghuz remaining
in Khwarazm to fragment. Some, like the Torks and Berendei, took up residence
in Russia (the "Black Hats" who
served Russian princes as mercenaries were formed from these tribes.) Others
remained behind and formed the nation that would eventually be called Turkoman,
periodically emerging as the White Sheep
Turks and Black Sheep Turks to
seize parts of Iran and Mesopotamia. The Oghuz language is spoken today
in variants including Modern Turkish, Azeri, and Turkoman.

KAYIAn Oghuz clan, closely related to the Seljuqs.

Gündüz Alp.............................................late 1100's

Kutalmish

Süleyman Shah...................................... ? -1227

Drowned in the Euphrates River while on campaign.

Ertughrul.........................................1227-1281

Ertughrul
led his tribe into Anatolia, fleeing the Mongol invasion of
Mesopotamia. Swearing allegiance to Sultan Kai Qubad of the
Rum-Seljuqs, he was given permission to found his own emirate and
expand it into Byzantine possessions in western Anatolia. In 1231,
Ertughrul's tribal levies conquered Thebasion and made it their initial
capital. His son, Othman, would become Emir of Bursa and eventually
found the Ottoman Empire.

Othman............................................1281-1324

Granted
the region of ancient Bithynia, in far northwestern Anatolia by the
Ilkhanate, Othman and his successors used this base to expand and
create the Ottoman Empire.

The PECHENEGS
A semi-nomadic people of Turkic stock, emerging out of Central Asia from
the 7th century CE. Their Qagans were apparently Manichaean refugees from
Transoxiana, and may have had a connection to the Oghuz.
In control of much of the land between the Don and the lower Danube by
the 10th century, they forced the Magyars before them into central Europe
and were harried incessantly by the Khazars behind them. Slowly driven
southward by the Russians, they repeatedly raided Thrace, and were in almost
continual conflict with the Byzantines (who referred to them as "Patzinaks").
Their power was broken once and for all in 1092, by a combined Byzantine-Cuman
army, but they did not completely disappear before about 1200. They are
fairly poorly documented, and the following list is very fragmentary.

The first eight entries, from Choban to Tolmach, represent local tribes
or septs...

Kurya seems to have established some manner of dominance
over much if not all of the Pecheneg people...

Metiga..........................................fl. c. 988

Kuchug.............................................fl. 990's

Rodaman.........................................fl. c. 1000

Ilday..............................................fl. 11th century

Tyrach......................................fl. 1040's-1050's

??

Temir......................................fl. c. 1175-1200

I cannot forebear from mentioning that Kurya is notorious
for having a drinking goblet made of Knyaz Svyatoslav of Kiev's skull,
following his demise in battle, 972. This use for enemy skulls seems to
have been something of a tradition on the steppes; Herodotus mentions the
same custom among the Scythians in the same region, 1500 years before Kurya.ROSHANI (Shughni)
An Iranian-speaking people inhabiting the Pamir region of Tadjikistan,
near the Afghan border.

Within Badakhshan to 1657...

To Dzungarian Kalmuck Empire......................1657-1758

To China..........................................1758-1798

To Khokand........................................1798-1868

To Russia.........................................1868-1917

To the Soviet Union...............................1917-1991

Within the Russian Federation, as a republic......1991-

SABIR A Hunnic
tribe that briefly established a powerful state north of the Caucasus.
They may have been attested to as early as 124 BCE, in which case they
are ultimately Sarmatian or Scythian in origin. They were allied with Sassanid
Persia until c.550, when they were enticed to join a Byzantine-led coalition.

To the Huns........................................395-460
CE

Independent Khanate 460-560

Belek......................................early 500's-520's

Bogharik (fem.)...................................520's-550's

To the Avars.......................................560-600

To the Gok Turks...................................600-630

Possibly one of the component peoples of the Khazar
Khaganate

The SARMATIANS A
people originally of Iranian stock who migrated from Central Asia to the
Ural Mountains between the 6th and 4th century BCE and eventually settled
in most of southern European Russia and the eastern Balkans. Like the Scythians
to whom they were closely related, the Sarmatians were highly developed
in horsemanship and warfare. Their administrative capability and political
astuteness contributed to their gaining widespread influence. By the 5th
century BCE the Sarmatians held control of the land between the Urals and
the Don River. In the 4th century they crossed the Don and conquered the
Scythians, replacing them as rulers of almost all of southern Russia by
the 2nd century. Sarmatia perished when hordes of Huns migrated after AD
370 into southern Russia. Those surviving became assimilated or escaped
to the West to fight the Huns and the last of the Goths. By the 6th century
their descendants had disappeared from the historical record. The Sarmatians
never formed a single unified polity; rather they were divided into numerous
tribes, the most important of which were:

ALANS (ALANOI)
The Alans, from whom the modern Ossetians claim descent, were a branch
of the Sarmatians descended from a mélange of peoples, including
Eastern tribes such as the Massagetae. The name Alan is thought to be derived
from the same route as “Iran” and “Aryan” (indeed, the Ossetian self-designation
is “Iron”) Some Alan tribes went west during the 300's CE and joined the
Visigoths and Vandals in Spain and North Africa. The majority remained
in the Caucasus region, around the Darial Pass. Their capital was Maghas
(destroyed by the Golden Horde in 1339) and at various times they controlled
the port city of Phasis, now in Georgia. Their kings had the title of Kundaj.

The Alan kingdom lasted, through various periods
of vassalage, until the 1400's, when it was destroyed by Timur Lenk (Tamerlane).
Thereafter the Ossetians broke up into tribes and factions which were usually
under Russian, Kabardian, Circassian or Georgian domination.

North Ossetia, largely populated by Muslims and also
called Alania, became an autonomous region within the Russian Soviet Federal
Socialist Republic in 1924, and an autonomous republic in 1936. South Ossetia,
largely Orthodox, was made an autonomous region within Georgia, but lost
its status in 1990, sparking a civil war between nationalist and pro-Georgian
forces. Autonomy was re-established in 1992, and peace was officially declared
in 1996.

Ossetian nationalists continue to agitate for a unified,
independent Ossetian state, or at very least a unification of North and
South Ossetia within the Russian Federation.

The following are some of the Alan rulers who
migrated west with the Goths, making their homes in Gaul, Iberia and North
Africa. At various times they were allies and enemies of the Romans and
were eventually absorbed into the Visigoths,
Vandals,
and other Germanic peoples (Sangipan, for example, fought alongside Ætius
and Theodoric against Attila the Hun, at the Battle of Chalons). Note that
most of the Alans who migrated west ended up acknowleging the Vandal kings
as their rulers by the late 400's. Gaiseric took the title "King of the
Vandals and Alans" and subsequent kings kept that title until they were
defeated by Byzantium.

Beler.........................................fl. late 300's ?

Respendial......................................fl. c. 410

Attaces............................................ ? -426

Goar (Gokhar).............................fl. c. 430's-450's CE

Sangipan........................................fl. c. 453

Beorgor.............................................d. 464 CE

AORSI The easternmost
of the Sarmatian nations, inhabiting the region around the lower Volga
River and as far east as the Aral Sea. There may have been two Aorsi nations,
one in the north and one in the south. The Chinese knew the Aorsi as “Yen-Ts’ai”.

Spadines (Shpadana).............................fl. 60's BCE

Defeated by the Romans 49 CE; absorbed by other Sarmatian
nations by 200 CE.

“FREE SARMATIANS”
A coalition of minor tribes who raided across the Danube into Roman territory
during the mid-300's CE.

Zizais, with...

Rumo, and...

Zinafer, and...

Fragiledus

To the Romans from c.350

IAZYGES One of
the westernmost tribal groupings, inhabting Moldavia and eventually pushing
their way into Thrace, northern Dacia, and Pannonia. The Iazyges were the
nation with which the Romans had the most contact.

Zanticus........................................fl. late 100's CE

Zanticus was defeated by Marcus Aurelius in 174 CE;
as part of the settlement 8000 Sarmatian horsemen went over to the Romans
as hostages. They were settled as federate troups as far away as Britain
and Gaul, where they introduced heavy cavalry and the use of coordinated
lancer charges. They may have become the inspiration for the legends of
King Arthur’s knights.

Beuca........................................... ? -470/1 with...

Babay (in Pannonia).............................
? -470/1

ROXOLANOIA tribe
probably deriving their name from the proto-Iranian Raokhshna, or “shining”.
The name may also derive from a term meaning, essentially, “The Western
Alans”. They were among the most powerful of the Sarmatian tribes, inhabiting
much of the region north of the Black Sea. The ruling dynasty of the Bosporan
Kingdom (see Crimea) from the end of
the 1st century BCE on was Sarmatian in origin, and probably belonged to
the Roxolanoi originally.

Disrupted by Hunnic migrations from the east after
370 CE. Eventually assimilated into a variety of nations in that era: Huns,
Goths, Romans, etc.

SAII A minor Sarmatian
tribe in southwestern Ukraine.

Saitapharnes.................................fl. early 100's BCE

The SAUROMATAE
The Sauromatae were the dominant tribal group during the early period of
Sarmatian history (c.600-300 BCE). They were supposed to have been descended
from a mingling of Amazon women and Scythian men.
The only recorded event involving them occurred in 507 BCE, when they joined
the Scythians in repelling a Persian invasion.

SIRACES (SIRAKOI)
A tribal group which migrated to the Black Sea region from what is now
Kazakhistan, settling in the Kuban region along the east coast of the Sea
of Azov. The Siraces were a relatively small nation, able to muster approximately
20,000 horsemen in the mid first century BCE.

Arpharnes (Aripharnasha)...........................fl. c. 310 BCE

?

Abeacus............................................fl. c. 66/3 BCE

Disrupted by Hunnic migrations from the east after
370 CE. Eventually assimilated into a variety of nations in that era: Huns,
Goths, Romans, etc.

Two other minor Sarmatian tribes were the Iaxamate
and the Basileans.

The SCYTHIANS A
wide-ranging group of horse nomads who emerged out of central Asia to displace
the Cimmerians in the Ukraine during the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. They
were among the first people to completely master the art of horsemanship,
and their ferocity and mobility became legendary because of it. Superb
mounted archers, they also maintained a brilliant and artistically gifted
culture whose artifacts can be appreciated in museums around the world.
Information about them is fragmentary; much of it derives from the Greek
historian Herodotos, who is said to have visited them. Many different Scythian
tribal groups have been identified, here is a catalogue of the best-known:

APA SAKÂ (Water Sakae)
– A little known tribe probably inhabiting the area south and east of the
Aral Sea. According to the Latin works of Quintus Certius, the Apa Sakâ
(called Abian Scythians in his work) declined to wage offensive war unless
they recognized a serious threat to their tribe.

BUDINI – A tribe
living on the northern shores of the Black Sea; very little is known about
them but they may be connected to the Median tribe known as Budii.

DAHAE (Daha) –
Literally "robbers" in Avestan. A Saka or Scythian nation inhabiting the
region northeast of modern Iran. According to Zoroastrian tradition the
prophet Zarathustra was murdered by Dahae.

Independent tribes................................. ? -530 BCE

To Persia.......................................c.
530-330

The tribe of the Dahae disintegrated after the fall
of the Achaemenid empire. Older sub-tribal formations became independent
tribes, such as the Xanthians
and Pissyri.
One Daha subgroup was the Parni, who were
the ancestors of the rulers of the Parthians. Another was the related Suren
tribe, which went on to rule much of northwest India for a time. Other
tribes descended from the Dahae probably were the Sakae
who ruled Bactria (see Afghanistan), Mathura
and other areas in Central Asia and India during the end of the 1st millennium
BCE and the beginning of the 1st CE.

GARGARII
– A tribe mentioned by Herodotus as living near Themiscyra, the homeland
of the Amazons. According to Herodotus, they met
once every year with their Amazon neighbors for religious rituals that
culminated in a nighttime orgy. The female children born of these unions
were kept by the Amazons, while the males were sent to live with their
fathers. Herodotus does not say what the Gargarii wives thought of this
arrangement, though if his tale is to be regarded uncritically, it implies
that the Gargarii were the male counterpart to the Amazons, and had no
women of their own.

GELAE – A tribe
inhabiting the Caucasus region, including northwestern Iran; the place-name
"Gilan" may derive from them. Strabo identified
them as Scythians but others dispute this assertion.

HARAIVA (Aryans)
– An Iranian nomadic tribe inhabiting the area around modern day Herat,
Afghanistan. The name means "noblemen", and they are likely connected to
the Aryan tribes that invaded India in the late second millenium BCE.

To the Medes.......................................650-550
BCE

To the Persians....................................550-c.330

Satibarzanes......................................late 330's BCE

To Macedon; within Afghanistan thereafter...

LEGAE – A tribe
living north of the Caucasus.

MATHURA – A Scythian-descended
group that established a state near Delhi in the 1st centuries BCE and
CE. See them in the INDIA file.

PARNI – This Scythian
tribe - descendents of the earlier Dahae - occupied
northeastern Iran (Parthia). They threw off Seleucid hegemony in 247 BCE,
and went on to conquer all of Iran and much of the rest of Seleucia 185-141
BCE as the Parthians. Specific information on them is located within the
IRAN
file.

SAKÂ HÂUMAVARGÂ
(Haoma-drinking Sakae) – These tribes, called Amyrgoi
by Herodotus, were known for their ritual use of Haoma, a hallucinogenic
drug made from the fly agaric mushroom. As this “crop” grows only north
of the Amu Darya river, it is assumed that the Amyrgoi lived in what is
now Uzbekistan. They were known for their use of the sagaris, a type of
battle-axe with possibly religious significance. They were subjugated by
Cyrus the Great.

SAKÂ
PARADRAYA (Sakae across the sea)– This is the Persian
name for the people traditionally regarded as Scythians, that branch of
the nation that lived in the Ukraine and north of the Caucasus. This, too,
was the group the Greeks were most familiar with, and the group that Herodotus
describes at greatest length. They were a confederacy composed of several
different tribes. The Scythian-Farmers were the land-working peasantry
settled mostly in the river valleys of the Ukraine. They have been identified
with the archeological culture known as theChernoles,
and may be the ancestors of the Slavs. The Neuri
have been identified with the so-called Milograd culture, the remains of
which have been found at the confluence of the Dneiper and the Prpyat rivers
north of Kiev. They may have been, ethnolinguistically speaking, a Baltic
people. The Agrippaeans
inhabited the region now occupied by Kalmukiya, just east of the lower
Volga. Another tribe, called theAndrophagoi
(“Man-eaters”)
by Herodotus, may have lived along the river Sula in the Ukraine; archeologists
have discovered human bones with human teeth-marks on them, indicating
widespread cannibalism in the area. Finally, the coalition was ruled by
the so-called “Royal Scythians”,
whose kings are listed below. The Royal Scythians were later defeated and
assimilated by the Sarmatians.

SAKÂ TIGRAKHAUDA (Pointed-hat
Sakae) - A group of Scythian tribes defeated in 520 by
Darius I. Herodotus calls them the Orthocorybantoi (“pointy-hat men”) and
informs us that they lived in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya (Oxus)
River. Their distinctive headgear, from which they derive their name, was
some sort of turban.

SAKAE – An eastern
group who emerged out of modern Afghanistan (Bactria) and occupied the
Indus River valley in the 1st Century BCE. More information on them is
contained in the BACTRIA article.

SUREN
– A dependency of Parthia, located in much of what is now Pakistan, northwestern
India, southern Afghanistan, and eastern Iran. Ruled by Sakae, descendents
of Scythian nomads who invaded from central Asia.

TANNU TUVA
A small region in southern Siberia, adjacent to the Mongolian frontier
at the headwaters of the Yenisei. The people are of Turkic stock, related
to a degree to the Yakut.

To Mongols........................................1206-16th
cent.

Khanate of Tuva

Samu Buima.....................................fl. mid 1500's

Sholoi Ubashi Altan Khan........................c.1587-1629

Ombo Erden Altan Khan.............................1630-1657

Lobzang Tayishi Altan Khan........................1657-1686

Gendun Dayishin Altan Khan........................1686-1696

To the Dzungarian Kalmucks........................1697-1757

Sanchin Senge Altan Khan.....................1696-1703

Qurulmei.....................................1717-1720

Erinchin......................................fl.
c. 1720

Lobzang Shirap................................fl.
c. 1722

Chilun........................................fl.
c. 1754

Tsengumchab..................................1754-1757

To China..........................................1757-1911

3 earler Chinese vassals, names not known....1763-
?

QURULMEI

Dazhi..........................................to
1789

Danzin.......................................1789-1794

Sedenbal.....................................1794-1807

Badizhap.....................................1807-1826

Lamazhap.....................................1826-1861

Shindazin....................................1861-1862

Olzey-Ochur..................................1862-1868

Kombu-Dorzhu (or Gombodorchzhy)..............1868-1912

IRGIT

Agbaan-Demchy................................1912-1913
opposed by...

Urjanchai Republic................................1911-1914

To Russia.........................................1914-1917

QURULMEI

Sodnam-Balchir...............................1914-1921
d. 1924

Anarchic conditions punctuated by occupations.....1917-1920

To Russia.........................................1920-1921

Republic of Tannu Tuva............................1921-1944

To the Soviet Union...............................1944-1991

Autonomous republic within the Russian Fed. ......1991-

THYSSAGETAI (Thyssa Getae)
A tribe inhabiting the southern Urals during the 400s BCE. They are discussed
by Herodotus. Almost nothing is known about them, although their name suggests
a connection of some sort with the Massagetai.

THE TORGHUTS (The Volga Kalmucks)
The western branch of the Kalmuck people (see Dzungarian
Kalmucks, Xinjiang), they migrated into the Volga Basin in the early
17th century, there serving for the most part as mercenaries in Czarist
armies. In doing so however, their religion (Lamaist Buddhism) and tribal
traditions came under increasing oppression, and at length (in 1771) 300,000
of them made an epic journey back to Xinjiang, pursued by Cossacks and
harried by intervening Muslim Khanates all the way. The surviving 15,000
settled in their old homeland once more, and swiftly faded from view. A
small remnant remained by the Volga, and survive today as a minor ethnic
group with it's own autonomous Republic within the Russian Federation (1936-1944,
suppressed for anti-Soviet sedition, re-instated 1958).

Under Russian suzerainty

Juljaghan Orloq...............................
? -1616

Qo Orloq.....................................1616-1643

Shikur Dayiching.............................1643-1654

Merghen......................................1654-1667

Buntshok.....................................1667-1670

Ayuki........................................1670-1724

Sheren Donduk................................1724-1735

Donduk Ombu..................................1735-1741

Kandul I..........................................1741

Kandul II Taijhi.............................1741-1761

Ubashi.......................................1761-1775

In 1770 The Torghuts left the Volga Basin and returned
to Xinjiang. Thereafter they were under Chinese rule.

The TURKS
The Turkic peoples form a major ethnic group which has had an enormous
impact on Central Asian and Levantine-Mediterranean history and culture
for the past 1500 years. In their origins, they seem to have arisen as
a Mongolic group in the broad and semi-arid steppes between Lake Balkhash
to the southwest and Lake Baikal to the northeast - basically southwestern
Siberia, northeastern Khazakhstan, northern Xinjiang, and western Mongolia.
At some point before c. 400 CE they began spreading out, mostly southward
and westward, although there are some Turkic speaking groups such as the
Yakut who went north. In the 5th century CE, they began encountering literate
opponents, and so pass into history. They threw off the hegemony of the
Juan-Juan,
establishing a vast but ill-defined nomad empire stretching across the
central steppes. Quickly dividing into an Eastern and Western Qaganates,
they endured until being rent asunder by newer peoples. Since that time,
they have slowly differentiated into varying ethnoi, but their languages
and dialects have remained very similar to one another. Various later Turkic
nations dealt with in this archive include the Azerbaijani,
the Balkari, the Bashkirs,
the Cumans, the Khakass, the
Khazakhi,
the
Khazars, the
Kyrgyz,
the Oghuzz, the Ottomans,
the Pechenegs, the Qarakalpak,
the Seljuqs, the T'u-Chueh,
the Turkomans, the Uighur,
the Uzbeks, and the Yakuts.
It is likely that the various Mongol peoples,
particularly the Tatar, are of Turkic descent to one degree or another.
It is also likely that such peoples as the Burtas
and the Magyars are distantly related to the Turks.

Qaganate of the Eastern Gök
Turkiut The senior branch of this
people. The Eastern Gök Empire was a crazy-quilt mixture of peoples
and religions, and was often in conflict with the Western
branch. By the 7th century, they had lost cohesion, and fell under
Chinese dominance.

Yabghu Qaganate of the Gök
TurkiutThe junior branch of this
people. The Western Gök Empire was a crazy-quilt mixture of peoples
and religions, and was often in conflict with the Eastern
branch. Swept aside by the Arab Caliphate in the middle of the 7th
century, the Turks became Muslims, and after a few centuries re-emerged
under the aegis of the Seljuqs...

VLADIVOSTOK and the FAR EAST
PROVINCEThe extreme southeast
corner of Siberia, where it curves past the Amur River and down to the
Golden Horn and the edge of Korea.

Previous to Russian annexation, this region was in
the hands of Manchuria and local tribal peoples, for the most part.

BOKHAI
A state in the Far East Province, established by 712 by the Sumo-Mohe,
a powerful Tungus tribal union, .

Da Tso-zhun........................................698-719

Da Ui..............................................719-737

Da Tsinmao.........................................737-793

?

Da Zhen'-sui.......................................818-830

??

The state was destroyed by Khitan beetween 924-926.
But the small fragment of state was still independent until 980.

Rulers of this state held the title "Kae-du".

To the Eastern Khitan...........................c.
925-c. 1210

To Mongolia....................................c.
1210-c. 1400

Some to Manchus, otherwise only local tribes...c.
1375-c. 1650

Mostly to China................................c.
1644-1860

To Russia......................(Amur 1858; Coast
1860)-1917

Chaotic conditions, several foreign occupations...1918-1920

Far Eastern Republic (Japanese
client state)......1920-1922 with...

Coastal Republic (Japanese
client state)..........1920-1922

To the Soviet Union...............................1922-1991

To Russia.........................................1991-

YAKUTAn immense
(roughly the size of India) region in Eastern Siberia situated between
the Chukchi Peninsula to the east and the Yenisei River Basin to the west;
itself watered by the Lena. Composed largely of taiga in the south, and
subarctic tundra to the north, Yakut has the distinction of having the
most rigorous climate in the inhabited world (average temperatures range
from +65 F. in July to -45 F. in January, but temperatures of -89 have
been recorded).

The indigenous people, the Yakut, are a Turkic folk,
with a considerable admixture of aboriginal Tungus. There are some elements
of Tatar as well. When initially contacted by Europeans in the early 17th
century, they were composed of over 80 local clan or tribal units, all
clustered near the Lena. The present population has expanded to all portions
of the region, and includes a large number of ethnic Russians.